Pretty Packages

Manjaro and Antergos put the power of Arch Linux in a beginner-friendly form.

Reviews

For several years, Arch Linux [1] has enjoyed great popularity with experienced users. The Linux-from-Scratch-based system [2] relies on simple concepts and thus runs very quickly; Arch offers users convenience and a very large software pool with its iconic package manager Pacman. Because Arch uses a rolling release schedule, the software is always up to date. (See the box titled "Rolling Release.") The key disadvantage of Arch is that it isn't especially beginner friendly.

The quest for a friendlier Linux with the benefits of Arch has led to a new generation of Arch-derivative distros. A pair of popular Arch-based systems are Manjaro [3] (pronounced as in "Kilimanjaro") and Antergos [4] (formerly Cinnarch).